American Cinematographer - May 1992 - 41

other technical facilities to look after the film properly,
and in 1956 the MMA did not."
In the mid 1960s, film distributor and pack¬

Raymond Rohauer went into partnership with
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in order to set up international

ager

exhibitions and commercial distribution of Fairbanks
Sr.'s films. In July, 1970, Ernest Lindgren received a
letter from Fairbanks, Jr., requesting that The Black
Pirate be restored in color. Lindgren said, "After con¬

sulting Technicolor [in London] and our own Preser¬
Brown], I replied to Fairbanks
to explain the complications and the estimated costs
of copying from a 1926 negative by a Technicolor pro¬
cess
long since obsolete; one of the problems was to
adapt an existing printer."
It was agreed that Fairbanks-Rohauer would
pay only the sum required to meet Technicolor's
charges (reportedly between $20,000 and $25,000). Said
Lindgren: "Our only other requests have been for a
viewing print for our students and researchers, and of
course the
right to retain the basic preservation mate¬
rial, which we shall continue to safeguard."
Apparently the cut negative of the selected
"takes," used to make the 1926 release prints, was not
included in MOMA's holdings, but preservation offi¬
cer Harold Brown says that the negative on hand con¬
vation Officer [Flarold

sisted of second, and in some instances third, alternate

takes: "This is proven by

the fact that the action in the
corresponding takes is not identical." Also, according
to a report in the BFI News of January, 1973, the miss¬
ing dialogue titles had to be restored. Frequently, the
silent titles of an original negative were kept on
separate rolls, and then printed and spliced into sub¬
sequent prints, masters, and dupe negative.
In 1960, Brown had examined what may have
been one of the last surviving original color prints.
Fortunately, he made extensive notes and also tran¬
scribed all the titles. Because the negative had shrunk,
special pins had to be fitted in the revised printer set
up to copy alternate frames. Separation masters were
made by Technicolor to produce a new Eastmancolor
negative. Naturally a great deal of testing was done at
all stages, with special attention paid to skin tones; Ray
Rennahan often said that "Technicolor was built on
flesh tones."
The entire restoration took approximately two
years. Harold Brown pointed out that the first print
struck from the new negative was not a completely

perfect reproduction of one of the original prints. Af¬
ter receiving the negative, Rohauer decided to make a
revised main title and inter-titles to cut into this

negative. Ironically, the newly designed titles were set
against a yellow scroll background (yellow, of course,
being a primary color not reproducible in the original

Unlike

so

many

tinted lobby

HMCoiaclewhctkiesnl

cards, this one
is

unusually

accurate in

simulating the
two-color
Technicolor

CTohuretesy

process, as used
in The Black

Pirate.

May 1992

American

Cinematographer

39
American Cinematographer - May 1992

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